


Weird Autumn

by citylitlena



Series: ★Gone by Summer ★ [3]
Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Road Trip, Angst, Angsty Sebastian, Bikers, Family History, Fluff and Angst, Past Relationship(s), Road Trips, Small Towns, Social Anxiety, Socialism, basically its a lot of night in the woods but in this universe, community revival, escape small town, jojaaretrash, night in the woods references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:06:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25390582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/citylitlena/pseuds/citylitlena
Summary: Autumn writhes into winter as Sebastian, Robin, Demetrius and Maru try to gather the pieces of a smashed home. Sebastian feels trapped. Abigail strains harder on the leash of a stressed Pierre. Sam worries about them. Something's gotta give.Sebastian has a Motorcycle. Home's smashed to bits, none of us are happy. Let's go on a road trip?
Relationships: Abigail & Sam & Sebastian (Stardew Valley), Emily/Female Player (Stardew Valley)
Series: ★Gone by Summer ★ [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1272668





	Weird Autumn

**Author's Note:**

> So hi. I've been totally creatively drained for a long while. I've not been totally idle, I wrote some for this project during April/May but hoo boy wow quarantine and working a lot sure do just take me town like a tiger that won't actually kill me, just like make everything tiring.   
> Speaking of everything being tiring.... Small towns! I grew up in one! Night in the Woods made me have lots of feelings about that! SOme of them are here, but also we're gonna have a road trip and a cross-over with another different world, a different... Universe. 
> 
> I've missed writing a bunch and I hope you enjoy these kids blowing the small town off and going on a roadtrip of learning about the world. e.

Sebastian pulled his thin black hoodie closer as the chill of winter dug its claws in. The route from Pelican town and up to the old community center was so well-trodden that Sam found himself heading upwards towards the mountain paths- towards home- before catching himself and sighing deeply. Instead he drifted to the right towards the ramshackle community center with its broken clock and one door hanging off of it’s hinges. He wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but the place still spooked him. Stopping outside the main doors and casting his eyes over the looming clock tower in front of him he searched for any signs of life. Everyone said there were rats living in it and Sebastian did not want to get rabies on top of all the other shit happening. The cold wind gently pushed at his back as he pushed open the stiff door and entered the creaking skeleton of a building. 

Inside was spartan and bare but it cut the worst of the wind. The wind whistling through the floorboards sounded like a spectral choir. Even after it had been locked up, Sam, Abigail and some of the other younger folks in town used to sneak in here all the time. It was even more of a mess than it had been just a few years ago. Some floorboards had been torn up, it smelled moldy and there was some sort of weird slime beginning to overtake the back wall. He took one tentative step inside. The floorboards protested creakily but they didn’t break. He began to walk towards the right side of the hall. Stepping towards the old office he turned down the corridor. The bowed wooden wall was littered with old handbills and posters. Despite the waves and peeling of the wall, the papers themselves seemed to be intact. It was like looking back into the past. 

He passed over a few business cards for a plumber who he had never heard of. Next to that was a poster which showed a short woman with a wide smile standing over a table full of potted grasses and bottles. She looked like a very friendly mystic who sold potions and tinctures. Underneath was some neatly typed writing and another picture- the same woman leading a workout class in the Pelican Town square. They were dressed in garish shades of all sorts of colour, some of them looking like a full rainbow, caught mid-pilate. The poster read: 

‘Rise and face the day with a personalized health tonic! Lyn-ber up provides all five vitamins and peppy petunia extract to keep you healthy, happy and hankering for good living! Call Evelyn on 7727071 and ask about Lyn-ber Up today!’ 

Sebastian squinted at the faded image once again. Her hair was strawberry blonde, with hints of gray and she was wearing a bright floral dress… But that was definitely Evelyn. 

‘Wow, she must have been some sort of health guru back then…’ 

Moving on to more of the older posters he found that this side of the board had been hit by running water, washing out the colours and covering everything in a verdant, thin moss. Many of the handbills and community notices were hanging from rusted pins. One handbills caught his eye. It had what was maybe a picture of an axe in a tree stump and next to it the name ‘Haft and Handle- Carpentry and Woodwork’. The two names that were written in loopy handwriting below were: ‘Robin and Chuck’. Another long-lost memory flashed through Sebastian’s head in bits and misty pieces. A man with the same wild hair and dark eyes as Sebastian himself. The man Sebastian reminded everyone of. The father Sebastian remembered by name only. He wished that weren’t true. It made it all the harder to justify his childish, false memories of someone he was slowly learning was far from a wholesome country woodworker. He fiddled nervously with his hair which he had stained black after what his mom had told him about her ex-husband. He turned and quickly kept moving. One of the big ideas of this whole adventure was to get away from his mom and step-dad for a bit. The only other legible thing was a poster announcing the opening of a Joja Mall in Zuzu City. It had been scrawled over by a red marker pen but the ink had run too much to read what had been written there. 

Sebastian turned away from the board with a weird uncomfortable nostalgia blooming in his head. He focused on what he was here for- someplace dry, quiet and not totally of trash. The doorway on his left was empty. Peeking into it he saw a dilapidated office lit in gentle glow from a murky window. There were even still stacks of documents all ready for whatever grim being still worked with paper documents. There were weeds growing out of a rusted iron vault in the corner. Sebastian remembered using it as a fire pit when they had all sunk in here one summer weekend. It also seemed to be where the mold smell was strongest. Every one of those ‘exploring abandoned buildings’ videos Sebastian watched way too many of at night was telling him that setting up in this room was probably not a good idea. This was confirmed when he took a quick peek at the stacks of papers and noticed the slimy blackness that poked dustily out of several stacks. He continued down the hallway. Descending some wooden steps into a sunken stone room. There were a few weeds pushing through the slabs, but it was unoccupied apart from the husk of some old piping and a tank. Maybe a boiler? A smile tugged at the edges of Sebastian’s mouth and he let it grow. This place could work out. And there was nothing else he’d rather do than bring the bike in here and make it safe. Behind some pipes he discovered a bunch of old 2x4s. They didn’t look rotten and he tested them against his weight. They held up so he placed a couple of them on the stairs down to this little boiler room and returned to the front door with a spring in his step. The wind still bit into him but he was not going to be stopped— time to move the bike to a better location.


End file.
